Colorado is the fastest-growing division for Christopherson Business Travel, with its business up 38 percent in the last year, said president Mike Cameron.

Staffing grew 24 percent, from 62 Colorado employees to 77. Companywide, employment last year increased from 210 to 248. Among those new hires are three additional software engineers to deal with the growth of online services, which now account for about 15 percent of Christopherson’s business.

Two years ago, Christopherson Business Travel – headquartered in Salt Lake City – bought Andavo Travel of Greenwood Village.

“This is the first complete year of doing business in Denver,” Cameron said, “and this has been a big year for us.”

In 2011, Christopherson had total sales of $287 million, beating its goal by $9 million.

Cameron said the number of airline tickets sold nationally dropped 2.1 percent, but 128 new corporate clients added nationally caused revenues to grow by 20 percent.

Among the new large clients are the University of Colorado and the Denver-based health-care management company TriZetto.

The Crested Butte Extremes - seen here in 2011 - has been cancelled due to low snow

Organizers of the pioneering Crested Butte Extremes freeskiing competition have pulled the plug on this year’s throwdown. The 21-year-old event – which was the first competitive stage to elevate big mountain freeskiing and has proven a launching pad for many notable careers – can’t happen this year due to the “unusually low snow year,” reads an announcement from the Freeskiing World Tour. It is the

It’s a blow that will likely reverberate through the Crested Butte region, which relies on a steady stream of mid-season events like the Extremes for a healthy economy. But the dearth of snow in December and January continues to thwart resorts across the country as contests are delayed deeper into the season. (The Freeskiing World Tour stops at both Moonlight Basin and Kirkwood have been postponed to later this month.)

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While it is snowing – Crested Butte has harvested 19 inches in the last 48 hours – the blanket on the steeps has not been enough for a contest that sees athletes hurling themselves down some of the gnarliest steeps in North America. Crested Butte’s daunting Phoenix, Spellbound and Third bowls have yet to open this season.

“We focus on safety first for our competitors,” said Event Director Bryan Barlow. “It’s not worth jeopardizing the well-being of our athletes to hold the event this year. We try to work with Mother Nature the best we can and have already postponed this event in hopes of more snow. Year-to-year we need to maintain a certain level of consistency from event to event in terms of snowpack and what is needed for the skiers to showcase what is freeskiing today.”

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.